Telecom minister seeks industry help to bridge digital divide

Communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has asked the telecommunications industry to support the central government's efforts to connect villages in order to bridge the digital divide. He added that if this gap is not closed at the earliest it may become unbridgeable.
 
"We break every barrier and utilise every resource at our command to reach out to those communities that have been left out and make sure that they get at least, if not equal, a significantly comparably service to what we get in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Otherwise, we won't be doing justice to our society," asserted Vaishnaw.
 
The minister urged the industry to especially focus on improving telecom connectivity among tribal communities in states such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Vaishnaw made these observations during a panel discussion organised by the ministry of culture and the industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi Saturday.
 
"From our side, we will be doing much more. We will make sure that the telecom industry, which is a primary source for consuming digital services, a driver of digital services and the driver of digitisation for especially the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), becomes a core and vibrant sector," said Vaishnaw.
 
The minister was emphatic that telecom services needed to be both low cost and reliable to ensure last-mile connectivity.
 
"The telecoms industry needs to grow as a sunrise industry and not be struggling and fighting with various stakeholders, whether they are courts, government or the regulator. All of us need to work together to reach out to that last person in the society," observed Vaishnaw.
 
The central government is looking at providing broadband access in 6 lakh villages by 2025 under the Digital India programme that was launched in 2015. The programme seeks to improve citizens' access to government services through enhanced telecoms infrastructure. Over 2 lakh villages have already been brought under the optical fibre network, according to government data.

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